Good Ringer, Bad Ringer

 

I've watched the first two episodes of Ringer, and I'm very undecided about it. It's either very badly written or brilliant, but it's too soon to tell. Here are some points that could go either way.

- The hitman was wearing a ski mask.
BAD Writing: Why would a killer wear a ski mask? He's about to kill his only witness. He has no reason to hide his identity. If he was wearing it to make it more dramatic, then that's just bad writing (or, I suppose, bad costuming).
GOOD Writing: The only way it makes logical sense is if he was not there to kill Siobhan. Maybe he was there to rob her, scare her, kidnap her or...
BAD Writing: He was there to kill Siobhan and needed the ski mask to protect his identity from Gemma, or vice versa. Why would you set up a hit specifically to have a witness present whom you were not going to kill?

-The hitman had a picture of Siobhan.
BAD Writing: Why does he need a picture of Siobhan on his person? Hitmen don't have good memories for faces these days? His crappy phone can't get picture messages? Why does he need a picture of her at all? Just arrange the hit by telling him to kill whoever shows up at the loft. Unless you have to make sure he doesn't kill Gemma (or Siobhan if he's there to kill Gemma), but then... you're smart enough to go to all this trouble to arrange a hit, but you can't figure out a way to get your target alone?
Good Writing: Ok, there's really no good writing way out of this one. It was the only way for Bridgette to know the killer was there for Siobhan and not her.

- Gemma arrives at the scene.
BAD Writing: Gemma has absolutely no connection whatsoever to the plot to kill Siobhan/Bridgette. Whoever arranged the hit just got lucky that Gemma happened to show up late to meet Siobhan at the loft.
GOOD Writing: Whoever arranged the hit did not control Gemma arriving late. She didn't arrive late because something happened to her (unless she was lying), but she arrived late because she chose to confront the maid about having an affair with her husband (or so she said). Therefore, she either arrived late on purpose because she knew the killer was there waiting for Siobhan, or whoever arranged the hit intended for her to be there and be killed too. The later option has problems. Assuming our hitman is dumb enough to need a picture of his victim on his person, why would he only have a picture of Siobhan and not Gemma too? Unless the person who arranged the hit was two people. Person #1 (perhaps Siobhan) arranges the hit in conspiracy with person #2 (perhaps Henry). The hit is arranged to fake the death of Siobhan. Henry wants to bump off his wife and independently arranges for her to show up too on the assumption that the hitman will kill her too.
BAD Writing: But why wouldn't Siobhan want to kill Gemma too? If she really is conspiring with Henry to fake her death to leave her life, it's presumably so that she and Henry can go off together and raise their child (if she really is pregnant with Henry's kid). In that scenario Gemma pretty much has to die too. It's hard to believe that Siobhan would have no qualms about having her sister killed but would want to spare her best friend (with whose husband she's having an affair).

-Siobhan tries to withdraw money from her emergency account
BAD Writing: Siobhan sets up an emergency bank account before she skips town. She tries to withdraw the money only to find that Bridgette has already emptied the account. Why would Siobhan wait until after she was supposed to have already died to try to empty that account? Wouldn't making a withdrawl from your account after you're dead blow the lid off the whole "fake your own death" thing?
GOOD Writing: She wasn't trying to fake her own death. She just wanted her sister to step into her life so she could step out. Bridgette is "ruining things" because she his making everyone's life better, stealing Siobhan's emergency stash, and who knows what else. The "it" in "it needs to be done" is not killing Bridgette but something else.
BAD Writing: Even if she wasn't trying to fake her own death and was just stepping out of her life, withdrawing money from a personal account at a branch in Paris while supposedly living happily in New York is not very smart.

The simple fact is, the hitman was either let in the loft or had a key, unless we're to believe he picked all 18 locks on that front door. That means Siobhan, Gemma, Andrew, maybe Henry, or a disgruntled contractor had to be involved in some way.

Even with the potential plot holes, my money at this point is still on Henry and Siobhan being in cahoots. Although part of me wants Siobhan to be conspiring with the guy Bridgette was supposed to testify against. All of this is assuming the producers even know what's going on. If they don't, then I'm going to loose interest very quickly.